Imelda Carchon
:“Mademoiselle, I know little of my husband’s business affairs and I care even less. I certainly have no intention of watching him pour over yet another pretty little journalist”. :-Imelda Personality Imelda’s personality can be best described by examining her nickname of “Ice Queen” which has been afforded to her by the press and general public after years of media exposure. Imelda plays on her English peerage by acting distant and cold towards most individuals that enter her estate and will treat visitors clearly with disdain in order to make their time with her as uncomfortable as possible. A woman mired in secrecy, Imelda has become uniquely adept at lying convincingly in order to hide information that she deems important and through shear resilience refuses to relinquish details even when faced with certain death at the hands of Khan. Imelda’s qualities also include stubbornness, cynicism and unreliability which come across in abundance throughout extended interaction with her, a fact that she is well aware of and will exploit for her own amusement. After blatantly lying to Nico about her involvement with her father in the past, Imelda even scoffs at Nico’s attempts to track down her husband’s killer simply because of her profession and goes even further by pretending to be open with Nico whilst secretly sending encrypted messages to Plantard to keep tabs on her movements. After her untimely demise, Imelda is found to possess a key in her locket that Nico uses to open her father’s secret box and it is revealed why Imelda is so hostile. During a campaign in a region of Africa; Imelda, Pierre and Thierry committed various atrocious acts that turned herself and her husband into bad people. Realising that Thierry was a spy for the government, Imelda kept his secret so that he could escape and live the life he deserved but became disillusioned when his plane exploded with him on board. Imelda also showed true feelings of love and affection for Nico’s father to the point where she nearly absconded with him but acknowledged that Pierre would find them both eventually and so stayed with him to avoid a needless death. In an ironic note it became clear that the “Ice Queen” was actually just a front put up to protect Imelda from the pain of losing her first love and again when her husband was murdered. Imelda, however, always believed that she and Pierre deserved to be punished for their past actions and did not try to leave the country out of Khan’s sights for that very reason, suggesting a sense of duty and morality was still left intact within. Imelda is the first character that is met by Nico Collard after she is invited to conduct an interview with her husband. Imelda answers the door to Nico and gives her a frosty reception before allowing her in the house. After trading several verbal barbs with both Pierre and Nico, a vase is smashed by a man dressed as a mime who Nico had encountered outside and Pierre goes to investigate leaving the two women to converse further. After hearing a loud gunshot Imelda freezes in shock, allowing Nico to run towards the sound and confront the attacker before being knocked out cold. Nico awakens several minutes later to find Imelda stooped over her dead husband’s body on the verge of tears. However, almost as quickly as her emotion was noticed, Imelda goes back to being hostile and goes to phone the police and remains on the line for most of Nico’s investigation. After reporting the details to the authorities, Imelda rounds on Nico and accuses her of being lucky because this story could make her career sky-rocket but depending on Nico’s reactions she will either be surprised she was wrong in her evaluation or will be vindicated in being exactly right. Either way she will present Nico with the key to the Drawing Room and is only seen briefly before Nico leaves the estate in which she assures Nico that she will omit the fact that she had been there during the death to avoid the police stopping the independent investigation. :“You are an extraordinary girl, Thierry would have been so proud of you”. :-Imelda Imelda is only heard from again weeks later in a phone call in which she invites Nico to dinner in a usually happy tone much to the anger of Nico considering her hostile behaviour towards her in their first meeting. All seems well until she mentions a Mr Moerlin is also coming to provide her with information on her husband’s death which causes Nico to immediately set off back to the estate to save her life. Nico finds out she is too late and is with Imelda in her last moments as her fake monstrous exterior melts away to reveal a more humanised Imelda who admits to knowing Nico’s father and how proud he would be of Nico before passing away from the gunshot wound inflicted on her before Nico arrived. Trivia *Imelda is a feminine Spanish/Italian given name derived from the German form of IRMHILD. It meaning "powerful fighter" and "universal battle", this proves to be an accurate representation of her character as, even in the face of danger, she remains absolute and stead-fast. *Imelda is one of the new characters, along with her husband, that appears in the Director’s Cut version of The Shadow of the Templars. She has no impact on George Stobbart’s adventure but plays a big part in Nico’s personal development. *Imelda is important to the story as she gives Nico the key to the Drawing Room, the room itself provides Nico with a potential lead and this connects the new beginning of the adventure to the events of the original beginning where she meets George Stobbart. Category:Characters Category:Minor Character Category:Female Category:Deceased Category:Broken Sword: The Shadow Of The Templars